Joyce Ann Brown, a longtime advocate for people who are wrongly imprisoned, died early Saturday morning. Her daughter, Koquice Spencer, said her mother had suffered a massive heart attack and stroke on Tuesday. Brown was being treated at Methodist Charlton Medical Center in Dallas. She was 68.

Brown spent more than nine years in prison on an aggravated robbery conviction that was later overturned and eventually erased from her record.

She founded the prisoner advocacy group MASS, Mothers/Fathers for the Advancement of Social Systems. She was an assistant for and friend of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. She also wrote a book called Justice Denied and was profiled by the television show 60 Minutes.

A sign marks a cooling station at the Salvation Army’s Carr P. Collins Center in Dallas on June 18, 2013. The Salvation Army set up 15 cooling stations that summer in Dallas-Fort Worth to help people combat the heat. (Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News) 06212013xMETRO

Climate change means it’s going to be really hot more often in Dallas in the coming decades. And more people are moving here.

The combination means human exposure to a warmer climate will increase more in urban North Texas and some of its neighboring metro areas than anywhere else in the country, a new study finds.

The scientists at the National Center for Climate Research, in Boulder, Colo., and City University of New York aren’t saying with this study that more people in Dallas or anywhere else will necessarily suffer heat stroke or other potentially deadly health effects. That’s because they can’t predict how many future residents will have air conditioning or access to emergency shelter during heat waves.

Other studies, however, have linked increasing heat to more deaths. And the new study’s authors note that extreme heat already kills more Americans than any other type of severe weather.

This graphic illustrates the expected increase in average annual person-days of exposure to extreme heat for each U.S. Census Division when comparing the period 1971–2000 to the period 2041–2070. Person-days are calculated by multiplying the number of days when the temperature is expected to hit at least 95 degrees by the number of people who are projected to live in the areas where extreme heat is occurring. The scale is in billions. (University Center for Atmospheric Research)

The researchers combined 11 different projections of 95-degrees or hotter days later this century with forecasts of population growth. None of the climate projections assumed any big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

They looked at what would happen if extremely hot days increased but population didn’t; if population grew but 95-degree days didn’t; and if both happened together.

Nationwide, they found that annual human exposure to extreme heat in the U.S. is expected to increase by 10 billion to 14 billion person-days — from multiplying the number of extremely hot days by the number of people who experience them.

During a comparison period of 1971-2000, the annual number was just 2.3 billion.

The increases are projected to be worst in urban areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. That puts urban Dallas and Houston in the nation’s hot spot for the human and social impacts of climate change.

Two landmarks will be featured on the show–Reunion Tower in Dallas, where the contestants will rappel down from its ball, and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, where they will complete another challenge. The teams will also visit a cattle ranch. The episode was filmed in December.

Here’s the tease for the final show of the season:

“Monster Truck Heroes” – Everything is bigger in Texas, including THE AMAZING RACE season finale! The final four teams race from Peru to Dallas, where they go to great heights at the top of AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, join a Texas cattle ranch and rappel 500 feet down Reunion Tower.”

The show airs at 7 p.m. Friday on CBS-TV Channel 11. No teams are from Texas this season but Texas teams have competed in previous seasons. The winning duo receives $1 million.

Former sportscaster George Riba made an entrance smiling and waving through the sunroof of a Fiat. He was practicing for Saturday’s Dallas St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival. He’ll be the parade’s Grand Marshal.

This news and other details of the 36th annual parade were announced Thursday at Snuffer’s on Greenville Avenue. There will be lots of family activities, including an expanded fun zone, and a new Brew Fest.

“We have new areas each year,” said Kevin Vela, chairman of the Greenville Avenue Area Business Association. “This parade is such a fixture in Dallas and a celebration that brings all of Dallas together.”

The Family Place Family Zone will be in the Meadows Building parking lot at the corner of Milton and Greenville. It will feature food trucks, exhibitor booths and sponsor exhibits, and for the second year, a VIP bleacher section.

The Brew Fest will be in the parking lot near Office Depot. Free to enter, the fest will feature food trucks, exhibitors and a DJ station. The presenting sponsor is Ben E. Keith Distributors.

Vela also mentioned how parade proceeds give back to the community by awarding scholarships to Dallas ISD students. Over the years, students have received more than $72,500 in scholarship funds.

Along with touting the new offerings, Vela also thanked the many parade sponsors and especially the Dallas Mavericks. Team owner Mark Cuban stepped up two years ago with a contribution to keep the parade afloat.

The team will have three floats this year–one called the Mavs Express for fans and staff and the other two for the Mavs dancers and the ManiAACs. The Mavs Corner at Lovers and Greenville will feature food trucks, a Mavs Retail Shop and Mavericks entertainers.

Snuffers will be the parade’s official burger sponsor. The restaurant will also have a float in the parade for the first time.

More than 90 floats are expected in the parade with more than 1,700 parade participants. With huge crowds expected, Vela recommends taking DART or Uber. The weather should cooperate with temperatures expected in the upper 60’s and no rain.

The meteorological setup couldn’t be better — a broad ridge of high pressure, clear skies and a southerly breeze — a trifecta that could push temperatures to 90 degrees in the Dallas area on Saturday.

The current record at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is 89 degrees, first set in 1927 and repeated in 1950 and 1992. In this morning’s forecast discussion, the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth, said 90 on Saturday “is certainly attainable.”

Farther south, Waco will be about as warm, but several degrees off the record high for the date, the weather service said, since the record there is 94.

Temperatures will fall slightly on Sunday before a system currently over the Pacific Ocean moves in, bringing a cold front late Monday, and chances for much-needed rain late Tuesday through much of the day on Wednesday.

Texas Turnpike Corp., developer of a proposed toll road linking eastern Dallas County with Greenville, has announced a series of 10 informal meetings over the next two weeks across the Blacklands Corridor.

K. Neal Barker, spokesperson for Texas Turnpike Corp., said the developer wants to talk with as many people as possible, particularly property owners in areas that might be on the toll road route. He stressed that the final route is yet to be determined, but said the TTC wants to meet to “help us understand community dynamics, economic development strategies … and perhaps most importantly, the constraints to the various routes we are considering.”

“These meetings are informal, one-on-one gatherings,” he said. “We will not have any formal presentations, but rather plenty of time to dialogue.”

The Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments could decide at its Oct. 9 meeting whether to include the proposed Northeast Gateway toll road its 2035 Metropolitan Transportation Plan.

A large truck struck a police car early Thursday morning while making an improper left turn, police said.

Traffic division investigators responded to the major accident at the 5200 block of East Grand Avenue around 2:15 a.m., police said.

Police determined that the truck made a left turn from a right lane, striking a squad car with two officers. The two were transported to Baylor University Medical Center where they were treated for minor injuries and released.

Police say the investigation is ongoing. There are no charges expected to be filed, police said.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, silhouetted against a window, announced a formation of an anti-poverty task force at the United Way Tocqueville luncheon in Dallas in February. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings kicked off the Poverty Task Force Thursday morning at Paul Quinn College, asking local nonprofit leaders and elected officials to help come up with solutions to curb the growing poverty rate in the city.

Almost 250 representatives were selected by the chair of the group, Larry James, chief executive of CitySquare, the nonprofit that aims to help people out of poverty.

Elected officials including Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins heard from agency leaders that serve the homeless, at-risk juveniles, the elderly and the hungry. The task force broke up into small groups to present ideas on how to find solutions to problems that contribute to poverty.

“We have the power in this room to change things,” James said to them. “We have something special here so let’s keep it going.”

Ideas ranged from growing literacy programs and school programs, funding more parks and transportation and having a hub for everyone to access financial education or health care resources.

The mayor told the the task force at the brainstorming meeting that almost two out of every five children live below the poverty line, up 26 percent from 2000. Growth in the total population of Dallas from 2000 to 2012 was 5 percent. The growth in the poor population of Dallas has grown in that same time period by 41 percent.

“Poverty touches every one of us, and we simply cannot look the other way anymore,” the mayor said. “All of these reasons have led me to this point. Dallas is a great city, and we can see amazing progress happening all over out city. We cannot truly be great until we lift up those who need it the most.”

The task force chairs, cabinet and city officials will take the ideas proposed and recommend best options for the mayor to pursue by mid-June. James expects the plans to be completed in August with a progress report delivered in late October.

“We’re protesting gun-free zones, especially [in places] where we’re forced to go,” said Melanie Davis of Wylie, an organizer of the demonstration.

Davis and another organizer, Tammy Koontz of Lewisville, are volunteers for the Gun Rights Across America.

“There’s no one out there working to end gun free zones,” Koontz said. “This is our take-off weekend.”

Koontz and Davis were joined by members of Come and Take It, pushing for open carry of holstered handguns, and Let’s Roll Texas, the local arm of an organization that says it’s working to uphold the Constitution.